At the start of 2021, many of us expected the world to return to normalcy. Vaccines were Kicked-off to become available to each and everyone, and many executives believed it would only be a matter of months until we all returned to work.

However, the rise of new covid variants made 2021 more volatile than projected. Variability and Unevenness will define 2022 for almost all employees and employers in this volatile world. The new variants will continue to arise and may cause workplaces to go remote again on a temporary basis.

Hybrid employment will result in increased inconsistency in terms of where, when, and how much different employees work. As annual pay increases fall behind inflation, many employees will see real wage losses.

Five underlying trends that will shape work in 2022 and beyond

1. Some occupations will need to return to the office because of the complexity of handling a hybrid work environment

In 2022, many companies aim to implement a hybrid work environment for their employees. While this will define the start of the year, we expect a number of high-profile corporations to reverse this and demand employees to return to work full-time. This movement will be influenced by a number of factors, including:-

• CEOs try to justify poor business performance by blaming it on hybrid work.
• Employees who work a mixed schedule have a higher turnover rate.
• Organizational culture is said to be vanishing.

Demanding employees to return to work will simply increase employee turnover.

2. Some organizations will reduce the work week rather than raise pay

When inflation is taken into account, actual earnings have fallen. And, if inflation continues to climb, many occupations will find that the salary they offer is meaningless, with employees having less purchasing power.

While some organizations can compete for talent solely on the basis of pay, others don’t have the financial capacity to do so. Rather than striving to win the competition for talent by increasing salary, some firms are reducing employee working hours and keeping compensation steady.

“We may see a handful of organizations adopt the 32-hour workweek with the same compensation as a new way to compete for knowledge workers.”

3. Employee turnover will continue to rise because of the hybrid and remote work environment

Flexibility in terms of how, where, and when individuals work is no longer a differentiator; it has become standard practice. Employees want employment flexibility. Employees will migrate to roles that offer a value proposition that better matches their objectives if their employer does not give flexibility.

According to reports, “85% of managers believe that having teams with remote workers will become the new norm.”

In today's world, greater flexibility would not lower turnover; in fact, turnover will rise. There are two reasons for this which are mentioned below:-

• First, Employees who work hybrid or remotely have fewer coworkers and consequently have a lower social and emotional bond with them. These weaker relationships make it easier for employees to quit their jobs. But lowering the social pressure can motivate employees to stay longer.
• Second, as hybrid and remote work becomes more common, the geographic radius of businesses for which someone can work expands as well.

These factors will lead to sustained, higher turnover rates compared to any of the historical norms.

4. The tools we use to work remotely will be transformed into tools for measuring and improving performance

When work gets more globally scattered, managers have less insight into what work their employees are doing. This leads to imprecise and potentially biased performance ratings based upon where employees work rather than the impact they have.

Employees' contributions will be evaluated using the same tools that they use to work in a virtual environment in the future.

For example, During virtual meetings, new technologies will be able to give background information about other people on the call. By knowing who is on the call, participants will be able to focus on the problems that are the most important to them.

5. Wellness will become the newest criteria used by businesses to understand their employees

For years, executives have experimented with various indicators to better understand their people, such as employee satisfaction or engagement. In 2022, businesses will incorporate new methods to assess their mental, physical, and financial well-being.

In the rise of the pandemic, many organizations increased the wellness support they provided to their employees.

Organizations are willing to use new employee well-being measures in 2022 that capture their employees' financial, emotional, and physical wellness in order to better predict employee performance and retention.

Conclusion

We've all been through the most significant workplace disruption in generations, and it's just going to get worse. What will change is how variable that separation becomes. In 2022, company leaders will need to learn how to develop in a period of disruption that plays out unevenly across their organizations.

If you want to know how your employees feel while working with your company, Dropthought can help you to collect feedback, create delightful employee experiences, and more.

Dropthought is a user-friendly, omnichannel, and real-time employee experience management platform. We empower companies in different verticals to create delightful experiences for employees across their employee journey. Get detailed analysis and insights from data to exactly know what your employees think and what actions you need to take to delight them.

With a dedicated team, we would ensure that you are optimizing your employee Experience programs and strategies to create great experiences!

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